Latest news with #MarcHon
Malay Mail
23-04-2025
- Science
- Malay Mail
Planet on the edge: Disintegrating world with dusty tail offers rare glimpse into exoplanet death spiral
WASHINGTON, April 24 — Astronomers have spotted a small rocky planet that orbits perilously close to its host star disintegrating as its surface is vaporised by stellar heat, trailed by a comet-like tail of mineral dust up to about 9 million km long. About 5,800 planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, have been discovered since the 1990s. Of those, only four have been observed disintegrating in orbit, as this one is. This planet is the closest to our solar system of the four, giving scientists a unique opportunity to learn about what happens to these doomed worlds. The researchers observed the planet, named BD+05 4868 Ab, as it gradually crumbles into dust, shedding material roughly equal to the mass of Mount Everest with each orbit of its star. The tail of dust trailing the planet wraps halfway around the star. The planet is estimated as between the size of our solar system's smallest and innermost planet Mercury and Earth's moon. It is located about 140 light years away from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). Its host star, a type called an orange dwarf, is smaller, cooler and dimmer than the sun, with about 70 per cent of the sun's mass and diameter and about 20 per cent of its luminosity. The planet orbits this star every 30.5 hours at a distance about 20 times closer than Mercury is to the sun. The planet's surface temperature is estimated at close to about 1,600°Celsius thanks to its close proximity to its star. As a result, the planet's surface has probably been turned to magma — molten rock. 'We expect the planet to disintegrate into dust within the next million years or so,' said Marc Hon, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and lead author of the study published on Tuesday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. 'This is catastrophically quick in cosmic timescales. The disintegration is a runaway process. As more material from the planet turns into dust, the disintegration process gets faster,' Hon said. Once in space, the vaporised material cools down to form mineral dust that streams away from the planet. 'We know the dust grains in the tail can have sizes between large soot particles and fine grains of sand,' Hon said. 'We don't know the mineral composition of the tail yet.' The researchers detected BD+05 4868 Ab using the 'transit method,' observing a dip in the host star's brightness when the planet passes in front of it, from the perspective of a viewer on Earth. It was found using Nasa's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, space telescope. How the planet came to have its current close-in orbit is unclear. 'The planet's orbit is not seen to be visibly decaying from the data. It is possible that the planet initially formed farther away, and had its original orbit altered under the influence of an external body, such that the planet was sent much closer to the star,' Hon said. This could have resulted from the gravitational influence of another planet or some other celestial object. The researchers plan further observations in the coming months using Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope to study the composition of the material in the tail, which could give clues about the makeup of rocky exoplanets. The search for life in other solar systems focuses on rocky exoplanets orbiting stars in the 'habitable zone,' a distance where liquid water, a key ingredient for life, can exist on a planetary surface. 'The tail is expected to contain minerals evaporated from the surface or interior of the disintegrating planet. So, this could be the crust, mantle or even the planet's core. Learning about the interiors of planets is extremely challenging. Doing this even for planets within our solar system is difficult. But BD+05 4868 Ab will allow us to directly measure the mineral composition of a terrestrial planet outside our solar system,' Hon said. 'This is definitely an exceptional opportunity for exoplanet geology and to understand the diversity and potential habitability of rocky worlds beyond our solar system,' Hon said. — Reuters
The Independent
23-04-2025
- Science
- The Independent
First planet of its kind with ‘gargantuan' comet-like tail discovered
Astronomers have spotted a first-of-its-kind rapidly crumbling planet outside the Solar System that is leaving behind a 'gargantuan' comet-like tail of debris. The Mercury -sized planet, dubbed BD+05 4868 Ab, is 140 light years away from Earth and located in the constellation of Pegasus, according to a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. It is so close to its star that it is covered in magma and is boiling off into space, say researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While observing a section of space using Nasa's exoplanet surveying satellite, scientists found a peculiar periodic dip in starlight that tipped them off about the presence of a rocky planet with a long, comet-like tail of debris. 'The extent of the tail is gargantuan, stretching up to 9 million kilometres long, or roughly half of the planet's entire orbit,' said Marc Hon, one of the authors of the study from MIT. Inspecting the planet further, they found that it is disintegrating at a dramatic rate, shedding a Mount Everest -equivalent of debris each time it orbits its star about every 30 hours. Given the planet's mass, researchers suspect it may completely disintegrate in about a million years. 'We got lucky with catching it exactly when it's going away ... It's like on its last breath,' said Avi Shporer, another author of the study. Typically, astronomers identify planets orbiting stars by looking for a brief dip in a light curve that repeats regularly. This is the signal one might expect from a star as it passes in front of, and temporarily blocks, the light from its star. However, when looking at the host star of BD+05 4868 A, they found that its brightness dip took much longer to return to normal. This suggested that a long trailing structure was still blocking starlight. Researchers found it even more intriguing that the depth of the light dip changed with each orbit, meaning the object passing in front of the star wasn't always the same size or shape. 'The shape of the transit is typical of a comet with a long tail,' said Marc Hon, another author of the study. 'Except that it's unlikely that this tail contains volatile gases and ice as expected from a real comet – these would not survive long at such proximity to the host star,' Dr Hon explained. Scientists then came to the conclusion that what they were seeing was actually mineral grains evaporating from the surface of a planet that tend to linger long enough to form a distinctive tail. 'This is a very tiny object, with very weak gravity, so it easily loses a lot of mass, which then further weakens its gravity, so it loses even more mass. It's a runaway process, and it's only getting worse and worse for the planet,' Dr Shporer said. While planets with such comet-like tails have been spotted before, these past observations were at least a decade ago. Among the three other disintegrating planets spotted outside our solar system, BD+05 4868 Ab has the longest tail to date, researchers say. 'That implies that its evaporation is the most catastrophic, and it will disappear much faster than the other planets,' scientists concluded.
India Today
23-04-2025
- Science
- India Today
New planet is breaking apart, losing material equal to a Mount Everest per orbit
Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered a new planet crumbling into pieces. The planet is losing material equal to one Mount Everest every time it completes an 140 light-years from Earth, the disintegrating world is about the mass of Mercury, although it circles about 20 times closer to its star than Mercury does to the sun, completing an orbit every 30.5 5,800 planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, have been discovered since the 1990s. Of those, only four have been observed disintegrating in orbit, as this one is. This planet is the closest to our solar system of the four, giving scientists a unique opportunity to learn about what happens to these doomed astronomers spotted the planet using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an MIT-led mission that monitors the nearest stars for transits, or periodic dips in starlight that could be signs of orbiting exoplanets. The disintegrating world is about the mass of Mercury. (Photo: Nasa) Its host star, a type called an orange dwarf, is smaller, cooler and dimmer than the sun, with about 70% of the sun's mass and diameter and about 20% of its luminosity. The planet orbits this star every 30.5 hours at a distance about 20 times closer than Mercury is to the planet's surface temperature is estimated at close to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,600 degrees Celsius) thanks to its close proximity to its star. As a result, the planet's surface has probably been turned to magma - molten scientists confirmed that the signal is of a tightly orbiting rocky planet that is trailing a long, comet-like tail of debris.'The extent of the tail is gargantuan, stretching up to nine million kilometers long, or roughly half of the planet's entire orbit,' says Marc Hon, a postdoc in MIT's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space added that the planet is disintegrating at a dramatic rate, shedding an amount of material equivalent to one Mount Everest each time it orbits its star. At this pace, given its small mass, the researchers predict that the planet may completely disintegrate in about 1 million to 2 million years.'We got lucky with catching it exactly when it's really going away. It's like on its last breath,' Avi Shporer, a collaborator on the discovery Reel
Business Recorder
23-04-2025
- Science
- Business Recorder
Planet with comet-like tail observed disintegrating near its star
WASHINGTON: Astronomers have spotted a small rocky planet that orbits perilously close to its host star disintegrating as its surface is vaporized by stellar heat, trailed by a comet-like tail of mineral dust up to about 5.6 million miles (9 million km) long. About 5,800 planets beyond our solar system, called exoplanets, have been discovered since the 1990s. Of those, only four have been observed disintegrating in orbit, as this one is. This planet is the closest to our solar system of the four, giving scientists a unique opportunity to learn about what happens to these doomed worlds. The researchers observed the planet, named BD+05 4868 Ab, as it gradually crumbles into dust, shedding material roughly equal to the mass of Mount Everest with each orbit of its star. The tail of dust trailing the planet wraps halfway around the star. The planet is estimated as between the size of our solar system's smallest and innermost planet Mercury and Earth's moon. It is located about 140 light years away from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). Its host star, a type called an orange dwarf, is smaller, cooler and dimmer than the sun, with about 70% of the sun's mass and diameter and about 20% of its luminosity. The planet orbits this star every 30.5 hours at a distance about 20 times closer than Mercury is to the sun. The planet's surface temperature is estimated at close to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,600 degrees Celsius) thanks to its close proximity to its star. As a result, the planet's surface has probably been turned to magma - molten rock. 'We expect the planet to disintegrate into dust within the next million years or so,' said Marc Hon, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research and lead author of the study published on Tuesday in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. 'This is catastrophically quick in cosmic timescales. The disintegration is a runaway process. As more material from the planet turns into dust, the disintegration process gets faster,' Hon said. Once in space, the vaporized material cools down to form mineral dust that streams away from the planet. 'We know the dust grains in the tail can have sizes between large soot particles and fine grains of sand,' Hon said. 'We don't know the mineral composition of the tail yet.' The researchers detected BD+05 4868 Ab using the 'transit method,' observing a dip in the host star's brightness when the planet passes in front of it, from the perspective of a viewer on Earth. It was found using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, space telescope. How the planet came to have its current close-in orbit is unclear. 'The planet's orbit is not seen to be visibly decaying from the data. It is possible that the planet initially formed farther away, and had its original orbit altered under the influence of an external body, such that the planet was sent much closer to the star,' Hon said. This could have resulted from the gravitational influence of another planet or some other celestial object. The researchers plan further observations in the coming months using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to study the composition of the material in the tail, which could give clues about the makeup of rocky exoplanets. The search for life in other solar systems focuses on rocky exoplanets orbiting stars in the 'habitable zone,' a distance where liquid water, a key ingredient for life, can exist on a planetary surface. NASA's oldest active astronaut returns to Earth on 70th birthday 'The tail is expected to contain minerals evaporated from the surface or interior of the disintegrating planet. So, this could be the crust, mantle or even the planet's core. Learning about the interiors of planets is extremely challenging. Doing this even for planets within our solar system is difficult. But BD+05 4868 Ab will allow us to directly measure the mineral composition of a terrestrial planet outside our solar system,' Hon said. 'This is definitely an exceptional opportunity for exoplanet geology and to understand the diversity and potential habitability of rocky worlds beyond our solar system,' Hon said.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
This Melting Planet Laid a Trail of Destruction Over 5 Million Miles Long
Astronomers have discovered one of the least habitable planets ever. This tiny world is being melted by its host star, leaving a comet-like tail that stretches millions of kilometers behind it. While we're often preoccupied with planets that might be comfy enough for liquid water to pool on the surface, the hellish landscape of BD+05 4868 Ab hosts liquid rock. These magma oceans are boiling right off the surface into space, condensing into a rocky tail. "The extent of the tail is gargantuan, stretching up to 9 million kilometers [5.6 million miles] long, or roughly half of the planet's entire orbit," says Marc Hon, astrophysicist at MIT's Kavli Institute. The unfortunate planet lies about 140 light-years away, orbiting its host star every 30.5 hours. That brings it about 20 times closer to the star than Mercury orbits the Sun – and cuddling up that close could prove to be a lethal mistake. BD+05 4868 Ab may have started out with more than double its current mass, which seems to be less than half that of Mercury, and it's getting smaller all the time. The researchers estimate that it ejects a Mount Everest's-worth of material into space with every orbit, and at that rate it will completely dissolve within 1 or 2 million years. "This is a very tiny object, with very weak gravity, so it easily loses a lot of mass, which then further weakens its gravity, so it loses even more mass," says Avi Shporer, astronomer on the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. "It's a runaway process, and it's only getting worse and worse for the planet." It's only the fourth melting Mercury exoplanet discovered so far, but it has the poorest prognosis. One orbiting KIC 12557548, for example, has been given about 200 million years to live. But BD+05 4868 Ab's extensive tail is a symptom of a much faster disintegration. Other tailed exoplanets have been discovered before, but they're usually gas giants with plenty of material to spare. HAT-P-32b, for instance, is leaking helium into two tails that span more than 53 times the planet's radius. It will probably take another 40 billion years before it evaporates completely. The hot Jupiter WASP-69b is also losing its atmosphere to a tail, although it's only shrinking by one Earth mass every billion years. It'll likely face other, more pressing apocalypses, like its star blowing up, long before it needs to worry about running out of air. But back to BD+05 4868 Ab. This extraordinary exoplanet was discovered in an ordinary way, using the transit method. This involves watching a star for periodic dips in brightness, caused by a planet passing between it and the telescope viewing it. But in this case, the astronomers didn't just see a brief and regular dimming. It took much longer than expected for the brightness to return to normal after each transit. Weirder still, the amount of light filtering through during each orbit varied. That suggested that a fuzzy, inconsistent structure was trailing behind the transiting object. "The shape of the transit is typical of a comet with a long tail," says Hon. "Except that it's unlikely that this tail contains volatile gases and ice as expected from a real comet – these would not survive long at such close proximity to the host star. Mineral grains evaporated from the planetary surface, however, can linger long enough to present such a distinctive tail." Intriguingly, there's also a much smaller 'leading' tail that stretches out in front of the planet. The team says this could be especially useful to help us understand the dust tail's dynamics and test formation theories. It won't top anyone's list of holiday destinations, but BD+05 4868 Ab may still have something to teach us about more hospitable worlds. After all, it's not often that a planet blasts its innards outwards for us to analyze. JWST could perform this autopsy, studying the spectrum of the star's light as it's absorbed by the dust to reveal what the doomed planet is made of. "This will be a unique opportunity to directly measure the interior composition of a rocky planet, which may tell us a lot about the diversity and potential habitability of terrestrial planets outside our Solar System," says Hon. The research was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Red Planet's Core May Explain Strange Mystery of Ancient Magnetic Field Unusual Gas on Alien World Sparks Hope of Life, And Healthy Skepticism NASA Reveals Stunning Closeup of Bizarre-Looking Asteroid
